OTHER VIEWS

JAMESW D. BESSER

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For Israeli children, walking to school can be a matter of survival.

Jewish National Fund is paving the way for safer travel in Israel.

SHETULA, Israel, 7:30 a.m. Seven-year-old David
starts off for school. He walks along a road
in full view of the northern border. Stress is
his constant companion.
Thanks to Jewish National Fund, David
will soon travel a new road: a safe, secure road
JNF is now constructing among communities
in geographically vulnerable areas. Hidden
from the sight of those who would do harm,

these security roads are costly to build but
worth the expense if even one life is saved.
Please, make a generous contribution to
JNF today. With your financial help, JNF can
double, even triple the miles of vital security road
that will make life more secure for Israeli families.
Because today in Israel, David and thousands
of school children like him need more than a
blanket for security. They need our help.

To donate, call Jewish National Fund at 1.888INF-0099
or visit us at wvvw.jnforg

Please mail your tax-deductible contribution to:

Jewish National Fund
42 East 69th Street
New York, NY 10021

JNF.
Together, We Can

Jewish Apartments & Services is pleased to announce
the winners of our 2002 Eight Over Eighty Event!

Jewish

26 ipartrnents

&services

Lillian Bernstein
Paulette Bonin
Gretl Frank
Rose Korinsky

Rosevelyn Lieberman
Dr. Irving Panush
Rabbi M. Robert Syme
David Tanzman

EIGHT
er

EIGHTY

Celebrating Our Heroes

Eight Over Eighty is a yearly event recognizing distinguished senior adults who have dedicated themselves,
their time, talents... their lives to our community. Tickets are $65.00 with all proceeds providing food
subsidies for those Jewish Apartments & Services older adults with low incomes.

The event will be held in our new Norma Jean and Edward Meer Jewish Apartments on the Eugene and
Marcia Applebaum Jewish Community Campus. 6760 West Maple Road West Bloomfield, Ml 48322

2rPV

Y Sunday, May 5, 2002, brunch at 11:00 a.m., at noon the induction ceremony.

3/22

Our Master of Ceremonies will be Alan Muskovitz, from the Dick Purtan Show on Oldies 104.3 WOMC,
our Mistress of Ceremonies is Sherry Margolis of WJBK Fox 2 News. For more information, please call
(248) 592-1101. Please join with the community as we celebrate our heroes!

2002

32

from page 31

ment's own corruption and repression
doesn't excuse it.
The story is the same in the Palestinian
areas and Syria. Holocaust denial and
blood libels are all the rage; the Protocols
of the Elders of Zion is a regional best-
seller.
More troubling still is the fact that this
anti-Semitic revival has gained at least the
tacit acceptance of countries that should
know better.
At last summer's misnamed U.N.
Conference on Racism in South Africa,
pro-Palestinian forces distributed rabidly
anti-Semitic material, and there was
hardly a murmur of protest from
European nations.
Not surprisingly, this trend is starting
to have an impact on American Jews.
Once, Jews here were hopeful that
Arafat could ultimately fulfill the promis-
es he made at Oslo and that even nations
such as Syria could come to terms with
the Jewish state.
Sure, Arabs hated Israel, but it was
seen as political and economic; the work-
ing assumption was that once political
arrangements were made and the eco-
nomic condition of the Arab world
began to improve, the hatred would sub-
side and, ultimately, there - would be a real
peace, not just a cold ceasefire.
But how do you make peace with gov-
ernments and cultures that have revived
old blood libels? How do you maintain
faith in treaties already signed when even
countries that have supposedly come to
terms with Israel — Egypt being the
obvious example — increasingly regurgi-
tate the ideology that gave rise to the
Holocaust?
American Jews may find this a bier
obstacle to support for new peace efforts
than their cousins in Israel.
Israelis, whose lives have been -dramati-
cally altered by the renewed violence,
may eventually be more willing to over-
look the spreading stain of anti-Semitism
if they see even a chance of changing an
everyday reality that now includes bomb-
ings, shootings and the epidemic of
despair.
American Jews, more sensitive to
expressions of anti-Semitism, may have a
harder time getting past the fact that
even "moderate" Arab states are sounding
increasingly like Der Stunner — a tip-off,
U.S. Jewish leaders believe, that it will
take more than signatures on treaties to
change Israel's status as a Mideast pariah.
Despite the claims of right-wing
Jewish groups, Jews here will continue to
support the idea of an active, land-for-
peace negotiating process — if suitable
partners can be found. But the dark
cloud of Arab anti-Semitism will make
that support much more cautious. ❑